Halcyon's War
by mikedc39
Summary: This is the story of two of my characters as they go through the Prophecies campaign poss. factions and nightfall as well. More details inside.
1. How It All Began

**Halcyon's War**

A.N. – Hey, this is only my second attempt at writing, the first being a complete failure a couple of years back that never got posted. This is only the prologue so it's quite short and I hope to have the rest of pre-sear down as one chapter but we'll see how it goes. I'm about halfway through the first chapter (I think). But it may be a while as I've got exams starting at uni next week, and I only recently got nightfall.

As you can see I've played with the timeline a bit, because I don't think that all of the training cane be done realistically in one day.

Disclaimer – I do not claim to own Guild Wars (although I would love to), all characters and locations belong to NCSoft Ltd (lucky buggers). I am making no money from this and probably not getting a degree either – oh well.

**Prologue – How It All Began**

'Well, I'm finally here,' thought Malios Halcyon as he entered the picturesque second city of Ascalon. Ascalon City houses the academy where future Ascalon soldiers go to begin their training. Malios spoke to the Town Crier who told him to look for Sir Tydus at the gates to the academy.

Walking up the hill Malios found himself following a girl who appeared to be the same age as him. At about 5"7 she was quite short compared to him, but then most people were when compared to his 6"4 frame. This girl, Malios was determined to discover who she was, carried a hand crafted bow and was wearing a number of animal hides as clothes. It appeared as though she was also heading towards Sir Tydus.

When they reached Sir Tydus he was busy briefing a patrol that would be sent north of the wall, Ascalon's last defence against the charr. Malios decided to introduce himself to the girl whilst they were waiting.

"Excuse me?" She turned around to face him and something about her made him stutter on his next line, "er… hi… I'm Malios… Malios Halcyon."

"Mirrax Beasttamer," she replied with a hint of amusement, "are you here to begin your training as well?"

"Sure am, I've been looking forward to this for a while. Would've come before now but Brother Mhenlo needed some help for a while at the Abbey."

Before Mirrax could respond Sir Tydus turned to speak to them, "So who do we have here?"

"Mirrax Beasttamer, Sir"

"Malios Halcyon, Sir," Malios said whilst snapping off a salute and standing at attention. He could hear Mirrax giggling in the background, but he didn't move until Tydus returned the salute.

"Halcyon, eh? You wouldn't happen to be related to Ooryl Halcyon Would you?" inquired Tydus.

"He was my father, Sir"

"Ahh, good man he was, we served together in the Vanguard. Not for long mind you, I was only in active service for about two years when he left to begin his family. He did a lot for the new recruits back then, kept most of us alive during the tail end of the Guild Wars. Right then lets take a look at you two. A Warrior and a Ranger. Mirrax I want you to begin your training with Artemis and Malios you'll begin with Van. Now, they're both outside waiting by the signpost in Lakeside County. Whilst you're there you might as well speak to Lina the Healer. Right, good luck and I expect to here good things about the pair of you over the coming year. Come back to me when you believe you are ready and I'll put you through your paces. Dismissed."

"Sir, yes Sir!" This was accompanied by a salute from one and a giggle from the other.

The two of the proceeded to head out of town to meet with their trainers. The first task they were issued was to deal with some skale. Mirrax was to kill the troublesome skale queen while Malios merely had to clear the river of the normal skale. Deciding to work together worked better than they thought it would as Malios waded right into the centre of a mob of skale and Mirrax attacked from a safe distance without being attacked herself as the queens attention was on Malios. When all the skale were dead the pair returned to their trainers and were told to await Haversdan.

When he arrived he directed the new recruits to a new trainer as well as Devona in Ashford to see what quests she needed doing, so that they could gain some first hand experience.

"So, what shall we do first?" asked Malios.

"I don't know, I'm kinda nervous about what tasks Devona will have for us."

"Don't worry about it, she told me that she always sets an easy task first off to the newbs," he reassured her.

"OK, so how about we head there first then," she replied and they set off walking towards Ashford, "so how do you know Devona?"

"Well I was born is Ashford and raised in the Abbey from the age of eight. Devona is good friends with Mhenlo and they've both always treated me like a little brother. In fact this hammer was a gift from her, says it was her starter hammer. I'm very honoured to be using it. So come on, tell me a bit about yourself."

I suppose now would be as good a time as any to describe in more detail these two young adventurers. As already discussed, Malios Halcyon was a big man at 6 foot 4 and just under 19 stone of muscle, he had blue eyes and mid-back length hair that was so black that it appeared to have a blue tint to it. He was very well tanned from hours of working in the fields around Ashford. He deliberately gave the impression of being big and dumb, but with Mhenlo himself as one of his teachers, this was far from the truth. At the time he was wearing traditional Ascalon Warrior armour, as worn by many in the Vanguard about 15 years ago, silver in colour and if one looked close enough they might be able to make out the name OORYL HALCYON, VANGUARD on the breast. The armour appeared to be well worn with time and a little ill-fitting, but Malios carried it well. He had a shield attached to his left arm, but leaving his hand free, a sword at his side (both of which he had found after killing the skale – obviously belonging to a victim of the skale) and a large hammer in his right hand resting on his shoulder. Add some food and a blanket into his backpack and he would be ready for war.

Mirrax Beasttamer, however, looked as though she had just emerged from a long stay in a forest. She was 5 foot 7, 9.1 stone (128 pounds) with fiery red shoulder length hair and brown eyes. According to Malios her animal hide clothing was tight in all the right places and the cut left little to the imagination. Her bow and arrows appeared to be hand carved and she also carried a large hunting knife in a sheath on her left hip. In fact the only fault that Malios could find was that there was a distinct aroma of fish about her, quite powerful if he was honest and he was currently looking for an excuse to throw her in the river that would still allow him to have children in the future (after all their brief skirmish against the skale didn't involve her getting into the water, only him).

"Well, I live in Griffingsford with my fisherman father," she finally replied. ('Well that explains the smell,' he thought) "I was taught to hunt and make my own clothing and weapons by Aidan and I rather hate fishing as a living, which I guess is why I'm here."

The pair had just got in range of Devona and judging by the grin on her face she was glad to see her 'little' brother.

"Malios, I've been wondering when you'd get here, who's your friend?" Devona asked.

"Hey sis, this is Mirrax Beasttamer, we just met in the city. So what have you got for us then?"

The two ladies nodded at each other before Devona answered, "Well this ones real easy. I want you to go to Ashford Abbey and speak to Meerak the Scribe. I've heard some unsettling rumours lately and he really should be telling Tydus instead of spreading it around. Could you go and see what's going on please?"

"I know you usually give out easy tasks to begin with, but come on, I'm sure you've got something more than that!" replied Malios.

"Don't worry! You'll get some much harder tasks in time."

After finding Meerak and returning to Ascalon City the pair decided to split up to meet with their respective trainers. After extracting a promise to keep in touch and help each other out they parted ways not knowing of the important role they would have in the future of Ascalon and the continent of Tyria.

A.N. Please leave a review and tell me how I did. My warrior monk is actually called Ooryl Halcyon (lvl 13 in the shiverpeaks), and Malios is my Assassin Elementalist (lvl 15 in kaineng although I don't play this one much anymore) . I changed it over because I prefer the name Malios as I was told when I was 16 (don't know if it's true or not) the Malios is Michael in Greek. My Ranger Ele is called Mirrax Halcyon and is lvl 20 currently in augury rock.


	2. First Tests

Disclaimer – Still not mine, still no money.

**Chapter 1 – First Tests**

Over the coming year these two adventurers did indeed meet up many times, they became fast friends when Mirrax saved Malios' life when investigating some trouble in the woods.

Malios, as usual, had waded into the thick of things against the Grawl invaders being led by Vatlaaw Doomtooth. Devona, who was leading the defensive, was trying to attack the Charr ranger and was unaware that Malios had been surrounded. By this time there were already two dead Grawl, but Malios had lost his hammer and his helm had been knocked off his head and had had to resort to his sword and shield. He was able to keep the remaining Grawl back but not much else. One of the Grawl, however, had managed to get behind him and was raising his own hammer to bring it down on Halcyon's head with a killing blow. Mirrax who had just prepared and ignited her arrows dropped the Grawl with an arrow between the eyes. The fight ended quickly after that, as the pair was able to pick them off with ease. As Malios inflicted some deep wounds, Mirrax followed up with some burning arrows that quickly ended the Grawls lives.

When Malios tried to thank her she merely waved it away by saying, "I'm sure you will be returning the favour soon." She then turned her glare at the returning Devona. This is the day that two rather important things happened. The first is that Malios learned to never piss off the ranger as he stood there listening to Mirrax rip into Devona. He could see the significantly larger warrior cower as Mirrax berated her for poor leadership for running after the fleeing Charr instead of helping her party. At this point Devona did try to argue back by saying that it was Doomtooth. At the mention of his name Malios' expression darkened and he gripped the shaft of his hammer so hard that Mirrax and Devona could here the wood cracking. Although only one of the two knew the reasoning for this action they both left it alone. Devona because she knew how much it still hurt and Mirrax because she wasn't done with Devona yet and didn't want to pry. She figured that Malios would tell her if she wanted too. When Devona heard how close her brother had come to meeting Grenth she paled dramatically and apologised profusely.

This is the second important thing that was learned on this day. Devona never forgot her actions of that day and will freely admit that nearly losing the one that she considers a brother in all but blood changed her entirely. Before hand she was considered to be rash and arrogant in battle, but this particular conflict taught her to keep her head and an eye on the rest of the party thus making her a much better warrior.

The next time the pair met was almost a month later. They had both come to Ascalon City for entirely different reasons. Malios had found a new hammer that he wanted to customise and Mirrax was talking to a Krytan man named Namar who was struggling to pay his rent. When they met up they could both see differences in each other. Malios had an aura of calm about him whilst Mirrax appeared to be much more powerful. For both of our adventurers had chosen their second professions, Malios had become a secondary Monk and Mirrax an Elementalist. However, they didn't have time to discuss this as a town crier found them with a message to meet Prince Rurik outside of town.

Both of them were very shocked to be meeting with the Prince before they officially joined the Vanguard. When they got outside they spotted the Prince not far from Lady Althea's Stage. When they reach him and his guard they both dropped to one knee.

"Rise, my friends, there is none of that in the Vanguard, there is also no time for pleasantries for now, a band of Charr have managed to breach the gate. We must stop them. Follow me!" Prince Rurik ordered.

They followed Rurik and his guards past the actors' stage and over the hill where the Charr were advancing. Rurik, his guards and Malios charged the Charr and were able to kill one of the two Mesmer's before the Charr reacted. The academy Monk that had accompanied the group was concentrating on healing Rurik and his guards. As Malios and one guard were fighting one of the Charr warriors and Rurik and the other guard were attacking the other Mesmer, none of them saw the remaining warrior advancing on Mirrax. She was firing a steady stream of arrows at the Charr, but they were being knocked away by his shield or glancing off his armour. The ones that were getting through his defence didn't appear to be doing much damage.

Malios had just knocked the weapon away from the Charr he was fighting when he heard a feminine scream from behind. He spun around to see a second Charr warrior standing over Mirrax with a raised sword. He could see the blood gushing from her thigh. Ignoring the now weapon less charr behind him he quickly used his newly acquired signet to knock down the warrior, cast a healing spell on Mirrax to close the wound, took out his sword and thrust it behind him into the weapon less charr that was about to use its claws on his neck. He let go of the blade as the now dead charr crumpled to the ground and retrieved his hammer. The other charr was now getting back to its feet and advancing on Mirrax again (who was still dazed), as the beast swung its sword Malios pushed out with his magic and created a shield around his friend.

The other charr were now dead and Prince Rurik was watching amazed as the remaining charrs sword appeared to bounce back off of thin air. Malios rushed at the charr and knocked it off its feet with a powerful hammer attack, his follow up blow crushed the charrs head as if it were soft instead of the armoured skull of a foul creature.

Malios rushed to kneel beside Mirrax as the academy monk checked her over. "Are you ok?" he asked. Too shocked to speak she merely nodded her head.

"Who cast this healing spell on her leg?" inquired the monk.

"I did," Malios replied.

"It's very good work, especially in the heat of battle. I fear I must apologise recruit Beasttamer, I wasn't watching the entire battle. The Prince is a great symbol for all of Ascalon and if he were to die in battle… well you can imagine how bad that would be. But still it doesn't excuse my actions and I am grateful that this young warrior was here today!" the monk truly did look ashamed.

"It's ok, I understand about the prince, he is the…" Mirrax began but she trailed off as the Prince approached.

"Malios, my friend, that was some excellent work, you're going to be a fine warrior someday," the Prince said. Mirrax mumbled something that sounded like "he already is" before blushing. The Prince quirked an eyebrow as he turned to her, "Mirrax, from the twang of your bow and the number of arrows in this beasts body and shield, not to mention the dents in his armour, I have to say you have a talent. However, I do believe that you need a better bow to face the charr, here take this it will help you to get one crafted in the city," he said handing her some gold. "You both did a good job and I look forward to having you in my Vanguard. Oh, and thank you both! Lady Althea liked the gifts." As the Prince walked away Malios turned to scavenge the bodies of the dead charr, hoping to find some gold and get some crafting materials from the armour and weapons.

After he pulled his blade from the chest of the dead charr, wiped it clean on the grass and sheathed it he turned to find Mirrax only a foot away staring at him. She jumped into his arms, sobbing into his blood soaked armour. He rubbed her back trying to calm her down. He knew he shouldn't, but he was enjoying this immensely.

"Thank you," she said when she stopped crying, "you saved my life. I thought I was dead, I should be dead. I was useless in that battle, all I did was distract you. I didn't even use the firestorm."

"Stop! You heard what Rurik said. If you didn't have a talent I would've been dead when we fought the Grawl and a firestorm in that battle wouldn't have done much good anyway. Until your magic learns to recognise friend from foe it will be indiscriminate, it may have been ok with me, as you know me, especially now that I've healed you with my own magic, yours will recognise mine as friend. What we will do from now on is stick together and so that your magic will grow I ask you to use a firestorm in every battle for a while and if anything goes wrong I can heal myself or other friendlies."

"Why haven't I heard about this before? And how do you know?"

"Well Mhenlo told me about it and that it also only tends to be a problem for rangers. The way he explained it to me is that it is because of the way most rangers grow up. He said that the vast majority of rangers that he has met across 3 continents have grown up having to fend for themselves, either completely alone or with one parent who has to work all day to support the family. Others may have learned the ranger art from someone like this and become like them, but either way there magic has trouble differentiating between friend and foe."

"I guess I can see what you mean, I've always been a bit of a loner, my mother died in childbirth, my father spends all day in the fishing boat and Aidan, my mentor, is most definitely what you described. It's funny though; I don't feel that way around you, never have in fact. Why is that?" she asked, still safely wrapped in his arms – as if to prove her point.

"I don't know, but we could ask Mhenlo when he comes back from Rin, he should be back in time for my nineteenth birthday. There's something else I need to ask him as well. The shield I used shouldn't have worked so well on you. It's not supposed to completely block an attack; it should only reduce the damage. It's the only protection spell I know and I was hoping to take enough force out of the attack that it wouldn't hurt you enough to kill you before the monk and I could get to you. I think that's why Prince Rurik was so shocked afterwards and the monk didn't even mention it. She wasn't close enough to hear the words I said so I guess she assumed it was something that Mhenlo taught me as all the monks around here know that he practically raised me."

All throughout his impromptu speech Mirrax was staring at him in wonder. She knew there was something special about him from the moment she met him, it was even more enhanced now though after he had saved her life.

"Come on lets get out of here, these Charr really smell," he continued.

"Hang on, I've just thought of something, what happens to all the bodies of the creatures we kill?"

"Well some get eaten by scavengers and others, like these charr will be, are collected by monks from the abbey for study. They look for any weaknesses that we can exploit such as the weakest parts of there body for a good solid hammer hit or what kind of spell they are susceptible to. Once the monks are finished the necromancers get hold of them."

"And what do the necromancers do with them?"

"I've never actually asked that and I have no intention to. I teamed up with a necro last week, and while I admit that there abilities are amazing, they scare the shit out of me and I'm not scared of anything." Well almost, he admitted as he gazed down at her, the fact that she hadn't moved in about 10 minutes now was making him very uncomfortable and grateful for the traditional cut of his armour – lots of room to hide long objects.

"Hmm… let's see… apparently charr warriors have rather soft heads." She giggled as he looked back at the mangled mess that used to be a head.

"Did I really do that?"

"Yes, you did, my hero!" she swooned dramatically.

"Oh, cut it out, I'm not gonna catch you as you faint."

"No you'd have to let me go first," she replied impishly, causing Malios to quickly extract himself from the very nice embrace – even with all that blood stained armour. "Spoilsport," she muttered, "come on let's go."

With that they walked back to Ascalon City in a slightly awkward silence, but when they both thought about the situation they had to admit – only to themselves of course – that they were very attracted to the other. A bright smile blossomed on both of their faces when Mirrax slipped her small hand into Malios' rather large one and didn't let go until they got back to the city.

Not long after this encounter the pair of them were asked to attempt to track down Vatlaaw Doomtooth. However, when Prince Rurik gave them orders only to find out how the charr ranger was moving around Ascalon and not engage him in battle, Mirrax was able to see severe disappointment on Malios' face. Remembering his last reaction to that name, she was very curios about his history with Doomtooth. But, she has already decided that she wasn't going to pry.

Deciding to check up on Rurik's idea of the catacombs, Malios suggested starting at the Abbey and questioning Mhenlo (if he had returned from Rin). As it turned out, the monk hadn't yet returned – at this point Malios was getting a little worried about his older brother, but there was nothing he could do about it – so Mirrax suggested an alternative that neither wanted to consider. Talk to Necromancer Munne, the primary necromancer trainer, who could be found just to the right of the catacomb entrance inside of the Abbey grounds.

A thought occurred to Malios about the safety of the Abbey. If the charr were able to successfully navigate the catacombs then they would be able to attack the Abbey with ease. The Abbey at Ashford was surrounded by a high metal fence with pointed spikes that was regularly patrolled by Ascalon guards. The catacombs, however, were not patrolled very far past the entrance. The only people who ventured into their depths were the necromancers, who were attempting to hold the hordes of undead that were the results of failed necromantic rituals.

The charr would not be hindered much by the undead or the relatively inexperienced necromancers, as the best were on the front lines creating minions from the fallen, comrades and enemies alike, and causing havoc amongst the charr forces. Gratefully the charr had not shown this level of necromantic expertise as of yet. Although, Malios had heard tales of Zombie Warlocks resurrecting minions in Kryta, just the other side of the Shiverpeaks. He was glad, in a way, that the war against the charr would mean that he would probably never have to see Kryta or its zombies.

Munne had told the pair that she had not heard of any charr moving through the catacombs, but admitted to spending most of her time training the new students and that Oberan the Reviled may know more. She told them that Oberan could be found north east of the ritual chamber where Mirrax had recently found the body of a Moa bird that had been used in a ritual.

The pair had no problem dispatching the enemies along their path, including the undead. Mirrax was able to hold them at bay while Malios got close enough to crush them with his hammer. When they found Oberan he looked as though he was preparing for a ritual whilst talking to what appeared to be a very novice necromancer. They were able to catch the tail-end of the conversation.

"… remember, the Crypt Fiends will come from the south west. You must hold them off until I have finished. OK! Good, because here they come.

At the other end of the hallway a very large mob of Crypt Fiends were approaching. The necromancer was looking very nervous.

"I'm not sure I can do this, there's so many of them," he said followed by a very audible gulp. It is possible that he may have been about to faint, but he was already so pale that it would have been impossible to tell.

"Oh, God not these guys again," Mirrax moaned, "well fire works well!"

"Ok, here's what we do. I engage them, then you throw a firestorm around the one in front of me, then hit them with your fire arrows," instructed Malios, "you, necro, stay with her and throw any long-range offensive stuff you have!"

The necromancer looked slightly better with someone taking charge and stepped up to Mirrax nodding. She, however, looked at Malios worriedly, "But…"

"I trust you!" Malios cut her off as he turned and ran at the crypt fiends. He jumped at the first of the 12 enemies and brought his hammer down in one swift fatal blow. Leaving his hammer, Malios drew his sword as fire began to rain down on the crypt fiends. He had just blocked the claws of one screaming fiend (they really don't like fire) and chopped of the head of another when the first flaming arrow came whizzing past his head. This was quickly followed by more as well as a ring of black magic encircling three of the enemy, one after the other.

'Finally,' he thought in regards to the necromancer actually getting into the fight. This was followed by large balls of dark energy being fired from the necro's bone staff. Malios quickly dodged a thrusting claw aimed at his head and retaliated by chopping the creatures arm off. The battle ended soon after as the necromancer raised two minions from the dead, who began to rip into the fiends. When one of the bone minions would fall the necro would simply use another corpse to create more. The firestorm and ended by now but it had severely wounded all of the fiends and Mirrax was still firing the burning arrows.

On of the last two managed to rake its claws along Malios' upper right arm, causing him to drop his sword from the sudden pain. Shield on left arm, he drove the edge into the creatures neck killing it instantly as the bone minions sliced up the last one.

Mirrax rushed up to him, "you ok?"

"Yeah, it's just a scratch," he replied as he cast a healing spell on himself and watched as the wounds closed. He retrieved his weapons and looked around for something to clean the black ichor from them as the rookie necromancer approached.

"I don't know what to say. This was supposed to be my last test, but there's no way I was supposed to be able to do that on my own. So, thank you!" He walked off before either of them could respond; he didn't even return to Oberan, he merely headed towards the nearest exit deep in thought.

When the pair approached Oberan he did look momentarily concerned at the retreating necromancer before thanking them for their help. Mirrax began talking to Oberan about the charr, but stopped when she hear a crack off to her left. Malios had just snapped a wandering skeletons neck and proceeded to tear a piece of cloth from its tattered clothes. He then nonchalantly began cleaning his blade before resheathing it. She had never seen anyone take so much care of a blade before and her list of questions were growing.

Oberan revealed that he had seen traces of this charr passing through the catacombs recently. He handed her a sharp charr tooth as evidence. Upon reporting their findings to Rurik Malios also told him about his thoughts and suggested placing a garrison of troops in the Abbey in case the charr moved in force through the catacombs.

When Rurik dismissed them they reluctantly parted ways to continue their training. Mirrax was heading to Regent Valley to charm an animal for a familiar, while Malios was heading out to the Barradin estate to take Little Thom up on his offer of some axe training – just in case he was ever forced to find another weapon he didn't think it could hurt to learn how to use axe. He even decided to ask Mirrax to teach him how to shoot a bow when they had some free time.

Just before she left Mirrax kissed him quickly on the cheek before darting away blushing furiously. Malios stood there for a moment before walking away whistling a jaunty tune.

AN – I don't know if anyone is reading this but this is up so quickly because my internet connection is a bit intermittent at the moment so I can't play the game and I've done enough revision for now. Please R&R.


	3. Ascalon Burns

Disclaimer – wish it were mine, still isn't, I'll try again later and I'm still officially broke.

**Chapter 2 - Ascalon Burns**

It was nearly a full year after Malios had begun his training and he felt as though he was ready for the final testing. He had just returned to Ascalon City, from finally speaking with Mhenlo, (who himself had only recently returned from Rin) hoping to catch Mirrax and see if she was ready as well. When he was spotted by one of the wandering guards he was told that Mirrax was waiting for him out by the gate into the northlands.

After thanking the guard he hurried back out of the city and headed towards the gate. When he got there, however, the only person he could see was the normal day gate guard, Torin.

"Ah, Malios Halcyon," Torin began, "I need your help. A friend of mine, Ben Wolfson, hasn't returned from his patrol in the Northlands. His squad was attacked by charr on the road to Piken Square but he got separated. I don't think he's dead though, too stubborn to die. So, do you think you and your lady friend up there can find him for me?"

"Lady friend?" Malios inquired.

"I'm up here," came the shout from Mirrax from atop the wall, "I'll open the gate and then Whistler and I will join you on the other side."

The gate opened before he could respond so he walked through and waited for Mirrax to join him, wandering all the while who Whistler was. Well Whistler turned out to be Mirrax's very own Melandru's Stalker familiar, a very graceful and deadly feline hunter. The big cat, it appeared, took an instant liking to Malios, for which both of the humans were very relieved. Mirrax greeted Malios with a hug and he was very pleasantly surprised to find that the fishy smell that had seemed to be ingrained into her skin was completely gone.

Finding Ben Wolfson turned out to be easier than they thought it would be, they didn't even have that much trouble defeating the nearby charr. Malios rushed at the shaman with his hammer. The other charr attempted to surround him but were kept back by Whistler's sharp claws whilst being burnt my Mirrax's firestorm and fire arrows. Having Whistler at his back made Malios' job a lot easier, after dispatching the shaman and throwing a quick healing spell at Whistler he was able to methodically kill the distracted charr with help from Mirrax. While Whistler couldn't inflict much damage against the massive charr he was nimble enough to avoid most attacks and annoying enough to keep the charrs' attention off of Malios.

Before heading back to the gate Malios told the others he had something to do in Piken Square. Upon entering the former market square all eyes were drawn to the eight piles of stones along the far wall.

"What are those?" Mirrax asked.

"Those are the graves of eight Ascalon citizens," Ben Wolfson began as Malios headed towards the graves. Mirrax went to follow him until Ben placed a hand on her shoulder, "These people were here for market when a charr warband attacked. Luckily the attack occurred at the end of the day when the market was closing, otherwise it would have been much worse. As it was there were twenty five people here when the fifteen charr attacked, only five of those were Ascalon guards."

"So how is it that only eight people died?"

At this point Malios was kneeling between two of the graves with his hand on each and his head bowed.

"The guards were the first to die and the rest survived because of one man. I was here that day with my parents when Ooryl Halcyon, former Warmaster of the Vanguard, single-handedly killed nine charr with only the further loss of life of two people and himself. Only the warband leader escaped that day, after killing Warmaster Halcyon's wife, Nissa, Ooryl grievously wounded the charr before taking an arrow to the throat. The charr ranger limped off to lick his wounds; we burnt the other fourteen charr (the guards killed one each before they died) and buried the fallen before we abandoned Piken Square. There have been too many charr in the area to return the bodies to their families ever since then, so here they have remained. I assume that your friend knew one of the dead."

"You could say that. His name is Malios Halcyon."

While Ben Wolfson was telling the tale of the Last Market of Piken Square, Malios had found his parents graves. They were lying next to each other, as he knelt down with a hand on each grave; he looked between them and saw the sunlight glinting off of something. Moving a few stones revealed an old Long Sword in its scabbard. Malios drew the sword revealing a very sharp blade with the word 'HALCYON' engraved on it.

"Father, I hope you don't mind me using your sword as well as your armour. I'll be a member of the Vanguard soon; I think I'm ready for the final testing. Mother, I have missed your guidance, but Mhenlo has taught me well in your craft. Oh, and I hop you like her! I will avenge you and make you both proud! This I swear!"

Malios stood up, attaching his fathers' sword to his belt as he did so. As he approached Mirrax and Ben he heard Mirrax say his name.

"Are you Ooryl's son?" Ben asked.

"Yes, I am."

Both Malios and Mirrax were surprised when Ben dropped to his knees, "Then I owe you my life. The arrow that killed your mother was meant for me, she jumped in the way to save my life, and your father saved all of our lives. If you ever need my help you will have it!"

"There is no need for that my friend, if everyone who my father or mother saved were to do that then I'm sure that half of Ascalon would be on their knees. So please rise, and I thank you for the offer of aid."

"Did you find anything?" Mirrax asked as she took his hand.

"My father's sword, much better than my current one. I need to check it over before I use it though," Malios replied, "come on lets go, we need to see Torin."

The trek back to the gate was made in silence and, luckily, they didn't meet any charr patrols along the road. After leaving Ben to catch up with Torin, Mirrax and Malios began a slow walk back to Ascalon City.

"Mirrax, I feel as though its time to take the final testing. I fear there is little more that we need to learn to be ready for the Vanguard."

"I think you're right, but it's late so why don't we head back to my place for tonight and go see Sir Tydus in the morning," Mirrax suggested.

"Well, if you're sure."

Changing direction slightly, the pair headed for Wizard's Folly and the small fishing village of Griffinsford.

An hour later Malios was seated comfortably in front of the fire with a mug of ale and a hearty fish stew – both made by Thorin Beasttamer, Mirrax's father. The man himself had just retired for the evening leaving the pair alone to talk.

"Do you mind me asking a few questions?" Mirrax asked after they had finished eating. At his gesture to ask away she continued, "there's a few things that have struck me as strange over the year. First of all, I have never seen anyone take such good care of a weapon as you have, could you tell me why?"

"My father had a list of rules that all warriors should follow, among them was: Never sheathe a dirty weapon. He taught me the best way to clean a number of weapons when you have the time to care for them properly, and what to do at the end of a battle. Do you remember when we were in the catacombs and I broke that skeletons neck to use its tattered clothes – my father told me that if you don't have a rag to clean up then you use your dead enemies to do so. Those crypt fiends didn't stick around long enough so I had to find something else. In fact," he continued as he retrieved his fathers sword from the floor beside him, "it's obvious that someone cleaned this before they buried it with my father, otherwise the blade would be useless by now. I think I'll have to ask Ben who cleaned it the next time I see him, if that person is still alive I would like to thank them."

"Well, Ben is a member of the Vanguard so it won't be that hard to find him. Not only that, but I'm sure Sir Tydus would allow you to look for this person; he seemed to know your father better that he suggested. Do you remember that fight against the Grawl when your helm fell off; well I was thinking that a properly fitting helm should not have come off so easily. So I looked closely and noticed your father's name on the breast. How did you get that if your father died in Piken Square?"

"That was the first day in a long time that he hadn't worn this armour when out of the house, it is also the reason that I wasn't with him that day. Before heading of to market we took this to an armoury to have the leather lining replaced. I was so fascinated by what was going on around me that I asked to stay and watch. My parents allowed me to stay so long as I stayed out of trouble, and that was the last time I saw either of them. When we got the news from Piken Square the blacksmiths wife took me in for a few days until the monks of the Abbey could take me. I spent the next ten years learning all I could about the hammer and sword – the way of the warrior. I grew strong from working in the fields and built the physique to wear my fathers armour, but it will never be a perfect fit. I know that I will have to replace it soon as it is rather outdated now, but I will never get rid of it. I also learnt as much as I could about the charr, especially the ranger that killed my parents, so that I could have my revenge against that bastard and his whole species." Malios was breathing heavily by the end of his speech.

"It was Doomtooth wasn't it?"

"How'd you know that?"

"It just clicked, the way you reacted every time that name was mentioned, you look as though you could quite cheerfully rip all of the charr apart with your bare hands."

"Hmm, nice image," Malios grinned ferally, "however, I have an even better way to kill Doomtooth, one I'm hoping that thing will remember – the blade of a Halcyon will taste Vatlaaw Doomtooth's blood once again."

Mirrax was quite sure that the images going through his head were much more gruesome than what she could imagine. Quickly changing the subject she decided to ask him why he had taken monk as a secondary profession. His answer was simply to take the pressure off of any party healers. He figures that if he could heal himself then it's one less person for any healers to worry about and an extra healing spell should the main monk be overwhelmed. She then told him of her reasons for becoming an Elementalist – the stories she was told as a child. She was fascinated by the power she now had the potential to wield. She had been at Foible's Fair a few years ago when a few Ice Elementals, led by a Tower Golem, had attacked. A female Elementalist had thrown a bolt of lightning that spread to all of the enemies. The Ice elementals, being made of water, literally exploded and the Tower Golem was thrown backwards into a pile of crates. Suddenly a phoenix flew out from a male Elementalist straight towards the golem. The impact was tremendous as the crates exploded and the golem burned until there was nothing but ash left. This show of power left her speechless and she wanted to learn as much of this power as possible.

The pair spent the rest of the evening talking. At one point, when Malios was telling her about life with his parents in Ashford, Mirrax sat on his lap to give him a hug and dint move for the rest of the evening. There wasn't only talking that night, they shared their first proper kiss in front of that fire and they fell asleep in that position – Malios sitting down on a straw mat with his back against the wall, Mirrax sitting on his lap leaning against his chest and whistler curled up at his feet.

Malios Halcyon and Mirrax Beasttamer were now standing in front of Sir Tydus back in Ascalon City. The pair had gone there after sharing an, in Malios' opinion, uncomfortable breakfast with Mirrax's father, who had woken them from their slightly compromising position that morning. They were now being briefed on the test they were about to undertake. It would be a mock battle, four on four against another team of hopefuls, filling out their team would be a young healer named Alesia Baptiste and a fire mage called Orion Elek.

The battle turned out to be a two minute kill fest for Malios as he and Whistler would jump from opponent to opponent, swiftly followed by arrows from Mirrax and flares from Orion. At one point when the opposing team surrounded Malios, both Mirrax and Orion threw firestorms and Malios used the monk area of effect spell – symbol of wrath. The combination was a tremendous amount of damage as Malios prevented them from running away by knocking them down with his hammer. Whistler took a near fateful hit mid-battle from an opposing ranger and Mirrax did not have the time to revive him. Both Alesia and Orion were also taken out at one point, Orion by a warrior who had slipped past Malios and Alesia by an air Elementalist using lightning javelin which interrupted Alesia' s attempts at healing herself. Malios was able to take up some of the healing slack, but his lack of available energy prevented him from being able to fully heal Alesia and, subsequently, whilst resurrecting her he missed the warrior attacking Orion. The final score of the battle was twelve-two, which was an impressive victory. The winning team went to meet Sir Tydus and Prince Rurik.

"I meant to find you before the skirmish," Sir Tydus began, "but I can see you did not suffer for my absence. You fought well!"

"I must agree with Sir Tydus," the prince continued, "when I watched you fight, I knew I was witnessing the future pride of Ascalon."

"I've been keeping the prince informed of your deeds. After seeing your performance for himself, I believe he is convinced."

"I am. I have come to induct you into Ascalon's Vanguard." Here he stopped and looked all four in the eyes, his gaze lingering over Mirrax and Malios, "we are the elite protectors who guard our nation when threatened from within or without. As part of the Vanguard, you are needed for a critical mission before we can begin our offensive against the charr."

Sir Tydus took over the briefing now. "Our sentries spotted Vatlaaw Doomtooth and his warband in the old bunker out behind the citadel." Both Tydus and Rurik had to ignore the obvious feral look on Malios' face, the both knew how Ooryl Halcyon died and, while eager to avenge their friends death, they also knew that Malios had the right to take him on. "He must have found a passage that led here from the catacombs. Whatever his purpose, it can be no good. As soon as you're ready, the prince himself will accompany you to cast this charr fiend out of our lands."

Malios was off almost before Sir Tydus had finished talking, he led the way to the bunker as fast as he could in his cumbersome armour. The Grawl didn't put up much of a fight when confronted with Malios' furious hammer and Rurik's fiery blade. At the top of the bunker Vatlaaw Doomtooth was waiting with a few more grawl.

"He's mine!! Malios growled.

"Right. The rest of you let's take out these grawl and leave the charr to Malios," the prince ordered.

"But, your highness…" Alesia protested.

"Just do it!" Mirrax hissed, "and Orion, no firestorm."

Again the grawl were relatively easy to kill as they fell to Rurik's sword, Mirrax's bow and Orion's flare. Meanwhile, Malios had placed his hammer on the ground and drew his father's sword as he approached the charr ranger.

"Doomtooth!" he shouted, "do you remember this sword? It's taken your blood before. You do remember, don't you? Ten years ago in Pike Square, my father killed nine of you scum before you killed him and my mother. Now I will end your life, but I will be honourable." Malios drew his own sword and threw it to the charr, waited for a moment, then charged. He blocked the rangers first attack with his shield, then went into a frenzy of attacking, leaving himself open to the charrs' attacks but it didn't matter, his second swing removed the charrs' sword arm and the third cut a deep wound in its chest. Malios whirled to his left as the charr thrust the claws of its left hand at his head, and as he finished his turn he brought his sword down on the overextended charrs' neck and cut off its head. It was over, he had killed Vatlaaw Doomtooth, avenged his parent's deaths!

"Mal, you ok?" an obviously concerned Mirrax asked.

"Yeah, I'm good, better than I have been in a few years," he replied, and then continued in a whisper that she wasn't sure if she was supposed to hear, "except for last night."

"Malios," began Rurik, "there are many in these lands who have wanted to do what you have just done, myself included. Ooryl was a friend to many and a saviour to many more (be it their lives, their careers or more personal aspects). Twenty years ago, when I was a young boy, I was kidnapped by a guild from Kryta, which incidentally is why my father does not like Krytans, but I digress. Your father, a captain in the Vanguard at the time, led a platoon to rescue me. Sgt. Grast, Cpl. Tydus, Pvt. Thom, Healer Mhenlo and recruits Devona, Cynn, Aidan and Clark all followed your father. They tracked us for two days before ambushing the Krytans in the foothills of the Shiverpeaks. Your father killed the guild leader with only one working arm, as the other had been wounded. Upon our return to Rin my father promoted the whole unit, Ooryl became a Warmaster and retired not long after to begin a family. You, my friend, are proving to be just as good as him already. All of you have a bright future in the Vanguard. Come, we have an offensive to execute. I want you four to link up with the…"

Rurik was interrupted by a loud explosion coming from Ascalon City.

"What was that?" shouted Mirrax.

The next blast sent all five of them to the ground as they scrambled to the opening at the back of the bunker.

"Oh! NO!" screamed Alesia.

"Ascalon burns!" stated the prince as they could all see more fireballs raining down.

"It's the charr," shouted Malios, "I can see some of the launch sites, it's the whole length of the wall, and they are attacking all of Ascalon. We have to help those people."

"Yes, we must get as many as possible to this bunker. My father, King Adelbern, will be on his way already and Tydus will be getting the army ready for the offensive – they will be well protected where they are amassing."

"Prince Rurik, you must stay here, nothing can happen to you," Malios began and Rurik looked as though he was going to protest, "your highness, I will knock you out if I have to, you can court-martial me later. Alesia stay with him and treat the wounded as they come in, I can do enough to get them walking. Orion, head to Ashford, get the people here or in to the catacombs – here is better if you can get them here safely, the river will offer them some protection for now. Mirrax, head to Regent Valley and Wizard's Folly, get the people t Fort Ranik. Most of the fire is concentrated on the city but that wont last. Move! NOW!"

The three of them ran to the exit of the bunker where Orion and Mirrax decided the quickest way would be to cross the river, so they jumped in and began to swim across. Malios continued on foot in to Ascalon City. He healed those he could, got others to carry those he could not and directed them all to the bunker. There were, however, many dead including, to his horror, Gwen the beautiful little girl he had met outside the city a while ago. Also among the dead was Mirrax's father and he had died a hero. He had pushed a child out of the path of some falling debris but was crushed himself. By the time Malios had found and uncovered him the rain of fire had moved south towards Ashford there was no way that any spell could restore his life now and Malios dreaded having to tell Mirrax.

Malios returned to the bunker a few hours after the attack began and sought out the prince. Orion had managed to evacuate most of Ashford in time, but there was no word from Fort Ranik yet and there wouldn't be for a while as the attack was moving in that direction. The land between Ascalon and Regent Valley was still burning and the river had almost dried up.

"Your highness, I have a cunning plan," stated Malios, "we have to destroy these siege weapons. It may be too late for Ascalon now, but there are many survivors. I need to know where the army is amassed so we can take them out."

The prince agreed with his idea quickly wrote some orders on a spare piece of parchment and sealed it. He told Malios to give the parchment to Sir Tydus and told him where to go to find most of the army. So Malios set off to find the army of Ascalon, all the while wondering if Mirrax was ok, if she had survived the attack, and whether or not she knew her father was among the dead.

A.N. – so we are up to the point in the game where there is a two year gap, I will attempt to show some of that in the next chapter, don't know when it'll be out as I handwrite everything first at about 3 in the morning


	4. Counter Strike

Disclaimer – I'm no longer broke but GW still isn't mine, oh well, and I'm still not making any money off of this.

**Chapter 3 – Counter Strike**

Sir Tydus was right where he was supposed to be, just north of the wall, not far from the eastern gate. However, there was no great army, and these lands had been seared as well, as far as the eye could see the land was burnt. Sir Tydus was issuing orders while the many wounded were being treated off to the left. Malios trotted up to Sir Tydus and handed him the letter.

"It's obvious what happened here, but my question is why, Sir Tydus?"

"I believe the charr wanted to destroy Surmia and Nolani in this attack or even the army if they saw us amassing here," Sir Tydus replied.

"Do you not know sir?" enquired Malios, "the charr hit all of Ascalon; I came out here to see if we could attack the siege weapons. I suggest you read that letter sir."

Sir Tydus opened the letter and began reading, "my god! Well the prince and king are safe. Ascalon City… Ashford… the Abbey… Rin on fire on the horizon… promotion… hero… commendation…"

"Sir Tydus? Is there anything we can do about those weapons?"

"Halcyon. The prince has recommended you for a commendation and has promoted you to corporal and on your first day no less. He wrote about you ordering him around as though he were the new recruit and you the prince. You have saved many lives already this day. As you can see we were hit pretty badly in this attack, however I can spare a few men to scout out one of these weapons. You will be in charge, since this is your idea, despite some of them outranking you. The nearest one is about two miles north of here, but the damn charr keep moving them back to sear more of the land. From the prince's report it looks as though they hit the most populous places first, Rin and Ascalon City, then everything south of the wall and now they are hitting all of our lands north of the wall as well. If you think that you can, I give you permission to take the siege weapon. MHENLO!" he finished in a shout.

Malios was very surprised when his mentor and 'brother' turned from a wounded soldier and jogged up to Sir Tydus.

"Mhenlo gather Devona, Cynn and Aidan. I have a mission for you, oh and Cpl. Halcyon is in charge!" Sir Tydus ordered.

"Aye, Sir Tydus," replied Mhenlo, "come on little brother, the others are over here." The two began to walk away from Sir Tydus before Mhenlo continued talking, "so promoted already, you must have done something good on this awful day. Any news from Rin and Ascalon City?"

"Adelbern and Rurik are safe in the old emergency bunker. We had no news from Rin before I came here, but we could see the flames from where we were. There is very little left of Ascalon City and I'm afraid that Ashford and the Abbey were completely destroyed."

"So, what did you do to get promoted and command of this mission?"

"This mission was my idea; I suggested it to Prince Rurik, who gave me sealed orders for Sir Tydus. I had no idea that they would give me command over you and Devona. As to why I've been promoted, well…" and Malios proceeded to tell Mhenlo about the events of the day.

"You have done well, if not for you many more would've died and not many get away with ordering a prince around. Ah, here we are. Devona, Cynn, Aidan we have a mission to do."

"What is it?" enquired Aidan.

"I have absolutely no idea; we have a new commander for this one. Cynn, Aidan I would like you to meet Cpl. Malios Halcyon"

"You must have impressed 'em already to be promoted on the day you joined the Vanguard," stated a visibly impressed Devona.

"What, they've given a newbie command over us?" questioned Cynn, she was not happy. Malios knew of her infatuation with Mhenlo and she obviously believed that he should be in charge not some newly promoted recruit. Of course this completely ignored the fact that Devona was the most highly ranked of the four and Aidan was the oldest.

"That's enough Cynn!" Mhenlo said with a glare towards the hot-headed fire mage, "if you can not respect my brother, then you will respect Prince Rurik, Sir Tydus and myself. Carry on Corporal."

"Thank you. We are to head to the nearest charr siege weapon and see if we can destroy it. We are too late to save Ascalon but thee is nothing at the moment to stop those bastards from firing on the survivors. The attack has stopped for now and I think I know why."

"Why is that, I can see no reason to stop the attack, they could just pound away all day and night?" questioned Aidan.

"I believe they are awaiting a report from Vatlaaw Doomtooth, he's been using the catacombs to get around Ascalon for weeks. What they won't know for a while is that Doomtooth is dead, we caught him hiding in the old bunker just before the attack. That is now being used as a refugee site, we have a few people trapped in the catacombs under the Abbey but the prince assigned a few people to take care of it. Others should be at Fort Ranik but I hadn't heard from Mirrax by the time I left."

"Mirrax, as in Mirrax Beasttamer?" asked Aidan.

"Yes, she was part of my team today, along with Alesia Baptiste and Orion Elek, as far as I know she is still alive, and I sincerely hope that she is. However, I found her father dead in Ascalon City, I'm sorry Aidan I know you were close to the family." Here Malios paused for a moment, "now we have to move out. We go north!" he ordered.

The five of them headed north at a steady pace, an hour later they crested a ridge to see a charr Flame Keeper activating the weapon again. He was guarded by two Axe warriors and two Ashen Claws. In the distance they could see more fiery balls launching into the air.

"They're attacking again! Aidan take out the flame keeper then cover us as best you can. Cynn, target the Ashen Claws and don't hold back! Mhenlo protect Devona while we move in," ordered Malios.

As soon as he finished speaking Aidan let loose a barrage of arrows that took down a surprised charr. Devona and Malios charged the approaching axe warriors. When they were in close enough Malios swung his hammer low and took the charrs legs, knocking it to the ground, his follow up was straight to the head proving that crushing a charrs skull was not a fluke. One of the Ashen Claws was writhing on the ground still burning, it would not be long for this world. Using bane signet, he knocked the remaining axe warrior off of its feet where Devona could finish it off. The remaining Ashen Claw didn't last long as it fell to a combination of attacks from Aidan and Cynn.

"Cynn, Mhenlo can you get this thing working?" asked Malios.

"Possibly, why?" replied Cynn.

"We've got to stop the charr from killing any more survivors, I want to use their own weapon against them."

"Alright, Cynn lets see what we can do. Aidan we're going to need some targets," said Mhenlo.

It took a few minutes, but eventually they got the weapon working and fired on the nearest enemy. Again and again they fired using Aidan's directions and systematically destroyed all of the charr weapons that they could find. Twice they had to stop firing to fend off charr counter attacks, the second resulting in a broken arm for Malios that he was lucky not to lose. A charr warrior boss had cleaved right through his shield and was barely stopped by Malios' gauntlets, at the same time Malios had thrust his sword below the charrs breastplate and upwards into its vital organs killing it instantly. Malios fought on with only one arm wielding his father's sword with constant pain from the jarring of his arm as he moved, he cut through another 6 charr in that battle. Afterwards, Mhenlo quickly splinted and made a sling for Malios' arm using pieces of Malios' broken shield and his own robe before returning to the weapon and firing again. Hours later they were standing on the only bit of unseared land in the whole of Ascalon.

"Mhenlo can you see any way of destroying this abomination?" asked Malios.

"Only one," replied the wise monk, "we simply fire straight upwards and then run. Anything else we could do to it would be too easy to repair. Mal, you better retreat to a safe distance, you won't be able to move quickly with that arm."

"Do it!"

Malios climbed to the top of the ridge with help from Devona. Looking around himself he could only mourn the loss of a great landscape and marvel at how lucky they had been not to have been hit when the charr gave up sending groups to kill them and simply fired upon them. The little hollow they had been in had saved their lives as the charr couldn't get an exact fix on their position. The area all around them had been blasted repeatedly and was much worse off than other areas. When they were far enough away Cynn and Mhenlo fired and then ran as quickly as they could.

It was late evening when the tired and injured party returned to the army camp. Sir Tydus had left a couple of scouts there with a message that the army had returned to various parts of Ascalon to do what they could to help and that they should report to Prince Rurik.

An hour later, with Malios almost dead on his feet, they found Prince Rurik and Sir Tydus talking with the king near what used to be the actors stage. As soon as Rurik caught sight of them he interrupted his father and beckoned them over.

"Halcyon, report!" he ordered.

"Your Highness, Prince Rurik, Sir Tydus," Malios began, "we found and captured one of those damn weapons just before the charr began firing again. On my orders Mhenlo and Cynn figured out how it works and destroyed the others before we destroyed that one. I know those weren't your orders Sir Tydus but I had to do something to stop the attack."

"I thank you my friend," replied the prince, "they had begun firing on the remains of the city and the bunker before they suddenly stopped."

"Yes, good work soldier," said the king, "Rurik we will continue this later" he finished as he began walking away, back towards the bunker.

"Prince Rurik is there any word yet from Fort Ranik?" asked Malios.

"Not yet," replied Rurik, "Mhenlo, Cynn, Devona and Aidan I want you to head to Rin and see what's going on over there. Malios, I can see that you want to head over to Fort Ranik but that will have to wait. I want you to accompany Sir Tydus and myself to try and find Duke Barradin and Lady Althea, but we will go in the morning, you need some rest and to get that arm seen to. Come; let us return to the bunker."

A.N. – short chapter I know but this seemed like a good place to leave it. Next we have the charr invasion.


	5. The Invasion

Disclaimer – as I'm typing this whilst doing my security work I think it's safe to say that I don't own GW, do you really think I would be working night security at a building site if I did.

**Chapter 4 – The Invasion**

The next morning saw Mhenlo, Cynn, Devona and Aidan setting off for Rin before Malios was even awake. When he did finally get up he looked much better than he did the night before. Mhenlo had fused the broken bone back together before they went to sleep; all that remained was a dull pain. After washing in the visibly diminished river, Malios sought out Prince Rurik. He was again at where the actor's stage used to stand, now it looked like a giant crystal formation, and he appeared to be deep in thought. Nearby, Sir Tydus was issuing orders to ten men who wore the uniform of the regular Ascalon guard.

"Prince Rurik," said Malios as he approached, "are you ready to move out sir?"

"Yes, yes, let's go."

The group of thirteen headed off to what used to be Green Hills County, each and every one of them staring in dismay at what was left of their once proud home.

"Malios, we must be quick here," began Sir Tydus, "our scouts have reported that a large contingent of charr is heading for the eastern gate. Grast has positioned significant forces to meet them. We are going to check the western gate then see if we can find Barradin and Althea. When we find them we will head east to the gate and you can head to Fort Ranik and assess our remaining forces there." Of course Sir Tydus knew of the feelings that Malios had for the young ranger he had sent out to Fort Ranik during the attack yesterday. Both he and the prince prayed that she survived if only for Malios' sake and that for him to be effective as a warrior he needed to know one way or the other whether she is still alive.

The western gate was clear and the guards reported no trouble after the attack died down. The group continued on. They came across a few stone elementals that used to roam Green Hills County, being made of stone obviously allowed them to survive the magical attacks. As they crested a ridge they saw a sight that horrified them all. The charr had blasted a hole in the Great Northern Wall and now they were pouring through four at a time. Or at least they would be if they weren't being held back y Duke Barradin and his men.

Sir Tydus turned to one of his men, "Quick! Get back to the bunker and tell the king of this attack. Go!" The man ran of as quick as he could, but he would never reach King Adelbern as he would be waylaid by three hulking stone elementals. Sir Tydus, oblivious of the fact that he would receive no aid continued, "we must aid them, the dukes men are dropping fast." It was true, Malios could see about fifteen dead Ascalon Guards amongst all of the charr corpses. Both sides were moving the bodies when they could to make the fighting easier. Duke Barradin and three of his guards were currently at the head of a force of about ten remaining warriors. Due to the rubble of the wall a narrow corridor had been created meaning that a small force could hold off a much larger one, but would eventually tire. Two archers stood behind the warriors firing when they had a clear shot. With them was Lady Althea, a Mesmer of considerable power, a mistress of Illusion magic and the betrothed of Prince Rurik. "You three archers with me, the rest of you with the prince."

The group ran to the battle site, the archers and Sir Tydus immediately began firing at the charr, the six guards joined Barradins' men while Malios spoke quickly with the prince.

"Prince Rurik, please stay back as long as you can, Ascalon needs you now more than ever." And with that Malios began wading through the waiting soldiers to get to the second line. He began casting what healing spells he could, (and would continue to do so throughout the battle) which gave the men ahead of him a second wind. Suddenly the man in front of him, next to the duke, fell leaving the duke open to attack from a second charr. Malios reacted immediately, hurling his hammer with all of his strength knocking the charr backwards onto the sword of the charr behind. Malios drew his sword, as the dead man was dragged out of the way and joined the front line next to Barradin.

"Barradin swap out with one of the fresh men, we have reinforcements on the way, we must hold till they arrive. We swap out when we tire and head to the back of the group." Malios was loud enough for all of the men to hear him and his tone brooked no argument, "Sir Tydus, conserve your arrows, but cover the changes," he bellowed. The three other front men fell back as soon as they could and were replaced immediately. Even with this plan Malios knew they had no chance of surviving for long. Not stopping his fighting (he had already killed four charr, including the one from his hammer throw), he surveyed the small battlefield, there were already hundreds of dead charr. The Ascalon army was obviously better trained and a formidable fighting force but the charr were more numerous, much physically stronger and were deadly even without a weapon as Malios saw when the man beside him had his throat slashed by the claws of the charr he was fighting.

Half an hour later and Malios had just killed his 50th charr, while six more Ascalonians had been killed, he would've died too by now if he hadn't taken a shield from one of the fallen. He had been forced to retreat slightly as the men beside him had died for fear of been surrounded. He was very grateful that only one charr ranger had come through so far as it had killed two and caused Malios to lose his helm. He had had to block an arrow with the shield and he was unable to duck in time to miss an axe swing from the charr he was fighting. The axe clipped his helm, knocking it off, and the force of the swing meant to remove his head sent the axe flying as it slipped out of the charr's grip. The charr was able to react and attack first, as Malios was a little dazed, and raked his claws across Malios' face causing three shallow cuts to appear starting above Malios' right eye and diagonally left. The first to the bridge of his nose, the second to the top of his upper lip, both luckily missing his eye, and the third which started just below his right ear and continued across his lips stopping at his chin. Battling through the pain Malios stabbed the charr through his neck before changing places with the man behind him and falling back towards the rangers.

Prince Rurik met him and helped him to sit. "Malios, are you ok?"

"I will be," Malios replied before wiping his sword on his bare upper arm and handing it to the prince, "hold this up so I can see the wound."

The prince did as instructed and Malios, looking through one eye as the other was closed to keep out the blood, passed his hand over each cut individually whilst muttering some words and the wounds closed up leaving scars that a better monk would be able to do something about later, now though he needed all of the energy he could get.

"Ok, I'm ready to get back in there," Malios said as he stood up and took his sword back from the prince, "that's enough resting for now."

"Yes and I'm joining the fight now. No argument Halcyon," stated the prince, as he said this a very big problem appeared at the breach in the wall. Four charr elementalists' came through followed by rangers. Prince Rurik bellowed out, "Sir Tydus concentrate all your fire on those spell casters and rangers as soon as they are in range."

Malios and Rurik pushed their way to the front line with Barradin not far behind. When one of the men at the front fell the three of them formed a wedge, with Malios at the front, swinging their weapons at any charr they could, and pushed their way towards the charr elementalists. Two of them were calling down firestorms on the beleaguered Ascalonians, whilst the other two and the archers began attacking Malios, Rurik and Barradin with flares and exploding arrows. Malios blocked three arrows with his shield only to be hit in the chest with two flares, staggering him. Luckily his fathers armour seemed to absorb most of the energy but his upper arms and neck were burnt quite badly. Arrows flew overhead from the six Ascalonian rangers (including Sir Tydus) taking out the four rangers as Malios fell upon the first of the elementalists. Rurik and Barradin turned round and defended the three of them from numerous charr warriors whilst Malios efficiently killed all of the spell casters.

Now they faced a serious problem, one that Malios had tried to avoid since entering the battle, they were completely surrounded by the charr. Standing in a triangle they continued fighting a battle that gave them little hope of surviving the day. Sir Tydus and Lady Althea had been forced to concentrate their fire on the front lines of the charr as three more guards died relatively quickly. The others were working harder trying to push themselves towards the three leaders. A rain of arrows flew overhead taking out six charr and Althea's illusion magic was wreaking havoc on other charr as it would bypass whatever armour they were wearing.

Rurik, Barradin and Malios were now fighting their way back to their men, but it was very hard going. There must have been over thirty charr between the small group and the rest of the men, considering the narrow confines of where they were fighting it was unlikely that the two groups would be able to reach each other. Each of the three powerful men would take out one charr for it to be very quickly replaced by another not allowing them to advance. However, despite their best efforts they would not be able to get back to their men in time.

Suddenly the charr pushed forward and the Ascalon line could not hold them back. Two men were crushed under the body of a charr as its comrades stepped onto it to move forward. The other six were cut down with swords, axes and claws. The rangers and Lady Althea, under the command of Sir Tydus, were standing ten meters further back. Six arrows and a ball of purple energy flew quickly at the advancing charr, they fired again and once more before the charr fell upon them. Sir Tydus stabbed one charr in the eye with an arrow, pulled it out and fired it point blank into the neck of the next. Lady Althea fell when she was hit in the head with the hilt of a crude charr sword. Sir Tydus was putting up a surprisingly good defence with a sword he had taken from the charr he stabbed in the eye, proving why he was such a well respected soldier and commander of the Ascalon army. However, he didn't last much longer as the charr surrounded him.

He was hit in the side by a partially deflected axe, which broke two ribs; the sword was knocked out of his hand as he stumbled over the headless corpse of one of the rangers. Dropping to his knees, jarring his ribs in the process, he was kicked in the head forcing him onto his back. The next thing he knew a charr had firmly planted its foot on his neck. His last thought before unconsciousness took him was 'where are the reinforcements.'

Malios and Rurik had both seen these events and fought with a renewed ferociousness that surprised the charr. Their sword swings were so powerful and accurate that the charr armour was completely useless. Prince Rurik's fiery brand sliced through armour and bone as easily as the flesh in between the two. While Malios didn't have a sword made of fire, his attacks were accurate enough to completely avoid the charr armour. Duke Barradin, not aware of the fate of his comrades or daughter, was surprised when he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. He hadn't realised the other two had begun to move off, which allowed one charr to do to him what had been done to Lady Althea.

Seeing that Althea and Tydus were still alive, the two remaining men stood back to back and killed anything that came into range. The charr bodies were piling up around them, forcing some charr to actually climb atop them. One such charr was able to bring a quick end to the fight. It jumped right at Malios, who was barely able to get his sword up in time. Malios' sword pierced the charrs' heart but the dead weight forced Malios to the ground where he was kicked repeatedly. He saw Prince Rurik falling to the ground with blood rushing from a serious head wound, realising that Rurik wouldn't last long, Malios threw the last of his energy, as a healing spell, at his prince, saving his life. Nearly passing out, Malios was quickly disarmed and his still alive comrades (Duke Barradin, Lady Althea and Sir Tydus) were dragged towards him and Rurik.

A loud barking could be heard in the charrs guttural language coming from a charr commander that had just come through the breach. The commander was followed by charr carrying the supplies to build a cage. Malios felt a slight relief at that, they were to be held captive rather than killed outright. Of course, every man and woman of Tyria had heard some horror stories of what the charr did to their prisoners, but they were still alive, and the longer they were kept that way the great the chance for their reinforcements to arrive in time.

After being thrown into the cage rather harshly, Malios bore witness to a conversation between two commanders. Malios gleaned enough from the barking and gestures to realise the charr were attacking in more places than just Ascalon. Banfazz Bonfur, judging by the crest it wore, would be taking a large contingent of charr across the Shiverpeaks to attack the Dwarves, if necessary, and then on to Kryta where, Malios could only assume, they would meet up with other charr forces.

The other commander, whose crest Malios did not recognise, would sweep through Ascalon and on towards Orr where they would destroy the spiritual centre of Tyria. What followed was a disturbing sight for Malios. Thousands upon thousands of charr came through the breach before forming up and moving south at a steady pace through the remnants of Green Hills County. Malios could only pray that Mirrax would survive.

The five captured Ascalonians were guarded by two charr overseers and a warband of twenty. A few hours later Sir Tydus began to stir. Malios had done his best to treat everyone's wounds and Sir Tydus was quickly emulated by Duke Barradin and Lady Althea. The three of them awoke to find an exhausted Malios checking on an unconscious Rurik with all of them being in a charr holding cage.

"Malios," Sir Tydus rasped before taking a sip of water that Malios offered him, "what happened after they broke the line?"

So Malios explained, not for the last time he knew, what exactly had happened. At the end of the tale Althea was cradling Ruriks' head on her lap.

"Will he be ok?" she asked Malios.

"He should be, but from what I can tell he has a slight concussion, which I am not skilled enough to treat. It'll heal ok on its own, but he will be out for a couple of days."

The next two days were long and boring for the prisoners. They were given food and water every morning and night but that was their only comfort. Rurik was awake long enough to eat and drink but spent the rest of the time asleep.

On the third morning after the attack and four days after the searing, Malios saw a figure crest where he had stood himself before joining the fight days earlier. The figure had long flowing red hair, he couldn't see the face as the sun was directly behind the persons head. At its feet stood a majestic feline. Malios felt his heart soar and his hope followed as he whispered one word.

"Mirrax."

A.N. – sorry about the very long wait, but I found this chapter very hard to write. Next chapter we follow Mirrax as she split off from Malios and headed for Regent Valley.


	6. Meanwhile

A.N. – sorry about the very long wait (if anybody is still reading this) but the reasons are on my profile. Thanks for the reviews; they helped me to get passed a few difficult times, including dropping out of university and returning home. BTW guild Wars still aint mine and never will be. Suing me will only get my laptop and a pack of chewing gum.

**Chapter 6 ****– Meanwhile…**

Mirrax gazed down upon the charr warband and the cage that they were guarding. She was very happy to see that Malios was still alive and barely noticed who else was been held with him. She had been devastated to learn that her father was dead and later that Malios, the man that she loved, was missing. Seeing him now took her back to how she came to be at the top of this rise five days after the 'Searing'.

_4 Days Earlier_

Mirrax grasped Orion's hand as he helped her out of the river with loud explosions still coming from the city. Looking back she could see Malios charging through the academy entrance into the city, at the same moment she was surprised to see Whistler come bounding out from the main entrance and race in their direction.

"Come on Orion, we have to move quickly."

The two of them with a large Melandru's Stalker not far behind raced towards Ashford. Mirrax and Whistler ignored the villagers at the top of the hill as they headed past them, through the village and on into Wizards Folley. She knew that Orion would get the villagers to safety. Once in Wizards Folley she ignored the stone elementals and went straight towards the mountains, where, just below the tree line, was Foible's Fair, a market and meeting place for mesmers and elementalists. As Foible's Fair sits in a hollow its inhabitants knew nothing of the attack by the charr. They were all surprised when they heard the shout from the ridge of the hollow and even more so by what they heard.

"LISTEN UP!" Mirrax shouted, when she had everyone's attention she continued in a loud voice, "the charr have attacked Ascalon City with a strange magical projectile, the city burns." Cries of despair issued from some of those present. "We believe that once the charr have destroyed the city they will turn their weapons on the rest of Ascalon. We are to evacuate the villages in Regent Valley and get everyone we can to Fort Ranik. I expect that the creatures in the area will flee south into the crystal desert, but be careful nonetheless. We will head to the nearest entrance into regent valley where I want two people to head to each village and evacuate them. I and one other will evacuate Griffinsford and then I will search for Master Ranger Nente. There are lone rangers all over the valley as well as a few hunting parties, so if you see anyone alert them of the situation. Those who are not going to a village should head straight for Fort Ranik and inform Lord Darrin to make space inside for everyone. Any questions?"

"Elementalist Aziure is still up at the tower," began Ralena Stormbringer, one of the people Mirrax had trained with, "I will get her then head straight for the fort."

"Good, is everyone ready? Alright then let's move out," ordered Mirrax.

The first hitch in the plan came when they reached Griffinsford, she managed to get the people moving towards Regent Valley but she could find no trace of her father. The house was empty. His boat was still at the jetty. She thought that he could be with Aidan, but it wasn't until she had checked Aidan's cottage that she realised that the ranger would be with the army. Praying that her father would be okay, she could do nothing more than continue onwards into Regent Valley and search for Nente.

Here came the second hitch, Nente and his entourage can normally be found near the entrance to Lakeside County, but they weren't there. Mirrax was able to find and subsequently follow three sets of human footprints. She tracked them to a hill where Ivor Trueshot could be found. This was the first luck of the afternoon as both Nente and Ivor were there, though it was obvious they were preparing to move on, completely oblivious to the horrors occurring all around them.

"NENTE, IVOR," she shouted as she climbed the hill, "the charr have attacked Ascalon. I will explain more on the way to Fort Ranik."

And that was it; they were off, no arguments, no complaints, no questions, just actions like all good rangers. The trip to Fort Ranik was fairly short from there and Mirrax was not surprised to note that all the creatures were fleeing before they could be consumed by the magical fire. They arrived at the fort to see a steady stream of people going across the drawbridge and into the safety of the stronghold.

Later that evening Mirrax stood on the ramparts of the half buried fort, gazing at the radical changes to the land she loved. Parts of it were still burning and heavy smoke hung in the air. She, and many others, after emerging from the safety of the walls and dungeons believing the attack to be over, had seen the charr weapons resume firing and was about to shout out a warning when something unbelievable happened. One of the fireballs appeared to hit another launch site. She watched stunned as this happened again and again throughout the next few hours. Somehow, and she had no idea how, she knew that Malios was involved in the miracle they had all witnessed and it filled her with warmth. Even from so far away she believed that he was trying to protect her.

Now, as night fell, it all appeared to be over. There had been no more attacks for a while now and she realised that she was lucky to be alive. The first fireballs had hit Regent Valley before they could get everyone inside the fort. There had been a mad rush when the first fireball hit near the fort, people were pushing and shoving their way across the drawbridge. Many fell into the moat, two were even trampled to death and quite a few more were killed when a fireball impacted the edge of the wall above the drawbridge. This hit instantly killed two army recruits and rained fire and stone onto the people below, ironically those who had trampled the others in their haste to get inside were hit the worst. Mirrax had just stepped onto the drawbridge when that fireball hit, but she Nente and Ivor were at the back of the group and were able to quickly get the wounded inside.

As the people huddled in the narrow corridors of the above ground sections of the fort they could hear every impact of the fire and every breaking stone. Many, sheltered in the barracks and dungeons below, truly believed that they could feel the dust and dirt settling after every blast. Farmer, soldier, fisherman, elementalists, all were reduced to one thing at that moment – human beings going out of their minds with worry and fear. Commoners and nobles sought comfort from each other as the fear of one's mortality crossed social boundaries that many don't even like to believe exist.

'Perhaps,' Mirrax reflected as she stood gazing at the sunset, 'the threat of the charr could even re-unite the four great nations on this continent. They may be able to look past their hatred and mistrust of one another and work together to defeat a common foe.'

Mirrax did feel a little strange to be so optimistic after such a cataclysmic event had just destroyed her home. This brought her back to worrying about her father, for whom she feared the worst. Trying to take her mind off of her missing father she decided to re-count and organise the survivors. In the morning she would gather what forces she could and head north to report to Prince Rurik.

T-3 Days

When morning came Mirrax, Whistler and twenty rangers began their journey back towards Ascalon City. Master Ranger Nente and Ivor Trueshot were organising a search of Regent Valley and Wizard's Folley for any survivors from the attack.

Almost at that exact moment, although unknown to both, Mirrax and Malios were thinking the same thing – dismay at what the charr had done. The beautiful land that she had grown up in had been turned to ash; the river was slowly being replaced by tat being drawn up from underground. Already there were some villagers, sent out by Lord Darrin, stockpiling what water they could.

Luckily the main bridge wasn't badly damaged and the trip to Lakeside County didn't take too long. Almost immediately Mirrax and a few rangers knocked an arrow.

"There was a cave up ahead that many creatures could have used to seek refuge from the fires. Be on your guard and let myself and whistler go first. Whistler will distract them and we will fill them with arrows."

However, the caution was unnecessary as the mouth of the cave had collapsed. Scratching, clicking and grunting could be heard from the other side.

"There must be Grawl and Devourers in there," stated one of the rangers.

"I wonder what the Searing did to them in there?" asked another.

"The Searing? And what do you mean?"

"The Searing… well that's what I'm calling it, the land was seared by the fire. The oxygen in that cave would have been used by the fire and yet those things are still alive."

"How do you know that?"

"Well my father was a monk and my mother a necromancer," was the response as if that explained everything. The staring that followed that statement was absolute, although whether it was for the statement itself or for the relationship was anyone's guess.

"Alright that's enough. Keep moving!" Mirrax ordered, putting an end to the conversation and the staring. Although she herself was wondering how a ranger could be produced by the union of a monk and a necromancer.

Not long afterwards the group came to the bridge that led into Ashford, or it would have if Ashford was still there. In the distance they could see the remains of the abbey, as well as a few people who appeared to be removing rubble. The group broke into a run towards the abbey and, as they came closer, they could see a few villagers moving rubble from the entrance to the catacombs.

"What's going on?"

"Mirrax, is that you? Oh, I'm so glad you're here," said a visibly relieved Pitney, "most of the residents of Ashford and the abbey are trapped in the catacombs. We were heading to the bunker when they started firing on us; we swam under the bridge for safety. Really gonna have to thank that Orion when we dig 'em out."

"Pitney, we can't stay and help, we've got to report to Prince Rurik and then out to the east gate to meet with the army," said Mirrax, "I'll get them to send some help up here."

With that the rangers were on their way again. Thirty minutes later the group arrived at the bunker, however there was no sign of Prince Rurik or Sir Tydus. Spotting Warmaster Grast she headed over.

"Sir, I've got twenty rangers from Regent Valley reporting in sir."

"Right, Beasttamer isn't it? What's the situation at Fort Ranik?"

"Most of the residents of Wizard's Folley and Regent Valley got to the fort in time. Nente and Ivor are conducting a search for survivors. We have an unknown number trapped in the catacombs under the abbey and we need to get some more people out there to help dig them out."

"I'll send some of the townspeople; I can't spare any soldiers at the moment."

"Sir, can you tell me where Malios Halcyon is?"

"The corporal left about half an hour ago with Sir Tydus and the prince. They're heading out to Barradin's Estate to gather his forces. They'll head to the east gate when they can. I want you to take these rangers out there now."

"Aye sir," replied Mirrax, "a few of us wish to see if some of our relatives made it to safety."

"Of course, Lina has a list of all who arrived here as well as a few of the dead. I have teams in the city searching for more survivors and to retrieve the dead. Gather some supplies and I want you to move out within the hour."

"Yes sir and thank you."

Unfortunately, what they found in the register was not good reading. Some still had no idea of their relatives' whereabouts, while others discovered that their families were dead. Mirrax was among the latter group. She read that Malios had found her father, dead inside the city, but had not been able to bring him to the bunker. She wanted to cry, she wanted to curl up in a corner and forget the world for a while, she wanted – no, needed – to grieve. She just didn't have the time; she would just have to get revenge by killing as many charr as possible. It was a situation that many would find themselves in over the next few days – making the choice between giving up or fighting, for the fight had only just begun. The charr were preparing to attack the east gate in large numbers, this is where the resilience and bravery of all of the surviving Ascalonian' would be tested once again. Looking around Mirrax could see that even some of the normal townspeople were preparing for war.

Thirty minutes later the squad of rangers were ready to move out. Whistler had already disappeared but Mirrax knew he would be there when she needed him. They left the bunker and headed to the east gate, through the ruins of the city and east along the Great Northern Wall. As they neared the gate they began to hear the sounds of battle. Ascalonian soldiers were on both sides of the gate holding both the gate itself and a former secret stairway that had been revealed during the searing. Spotting Captain Calhaan, talking to a scribe, Mirrax approached.

"Captain, I have twenty rangers ready to assist, where would you like them sir?"

"I want you to spread out on top of the wall after reporting to that monk over there," replied Calhaan, "you are about to be let in on one of Ascalons greatest weapons. Towards the end of the Guild Wars a spell was created to make an auto-replenishing quiver. The arrows it creates are just like what you use now and can be prepared in any way you see fit. Now go and concentrate on the spellcasters and archers!"

It was mid-afternoon when the rangers arrived at the battle and they had tremendous success with their newly enchanted quivers. The battle raged until nightfall, with neither side really gaining the upper hand. The charr had many more available spellcasters but they were neutralised by the rangers in their elevated positions. Many Ascalonians' were surprised when the charr withdrew at nightfall; it was well known that the charr had much better night vision than humans. A watch was set consisting of a few men who had arrived late to the battle and hadn't even bloodied their weapons yet.

Mirrax wasn't exactly thrilled to be going to sleep knowing it would bring nightmares of her father dying. She was also worried about Malios who was yet to arrive from Barradin's Estate.

T-2 Days

The morning brought a renewed push by the charr and it looked as though they would break through the lines by midday. The charr had made it to and then through the east gate when a small band of necromancers, lead by Munne, arrived. Immediately they began casting their spells to summon creatures and raise the dead. The charr advance was quickly halted as undead creatures sprang up everywhere and began creating havoc. Claws and teeth ripping through flesh bone and armour indiscriminately – each kill creating another corpse to use against the enemy. This sudden turnaround spurred the beleaguered defenders into a vicious counterattack. By the time that night fell again only a few hundred charr remained. They quickly fled into the night being chased by creatures made of bone. As the Ascalonians cheered Mirrax looked upon the battlefield. The remains of nearly two thousand of Ascalons finest warriors were littered across the battlefield; hundreds more had been captured before the arrival of the necromancers and were taken deep behind enemy lines. Of the twenty rangers only twelve remained and Mirrax herself was injured. She had taken an arrow to the thigh during the morning and, other than removing the arrow and binding the wound herself, had received no treatment. It was highly unlikely that she would receive any either, at least until the morning, as the few monks were extremely busy with the ground troops. A scribe assured her that she would be seen to as soon as possible.

Mirrax settled down to a long on painful night upon the wall. At least the wall still held.

T-1 Day

Mirrax awoke tired, hungry and very sore the next morning as a monk finally began to treat the wound. After a meagre breakfast of dried meat and slightly stale bread, Mirrax approached Captain Calhaan again.

"Sir, I would like to head back to the bunker."

"Why is that recruit?" asked Calhaan.

Sir, Prince Rurik, Sir Tydus and Duke Barradin were supposed to have arrived to aid us in the battle," replied Mirrax, "someone needs to report in and try to find them."

"Okay, I need someone to escort the monks and heavily wounded back to the bunker anyway. Take what's left of your rangers and ten soldiers and head back," ordered Calhaan.

While Mirrax wasn't happy about the escort duty, as it would severely slow down the return trip, at least she would legitimately be able to look for Malios without going A.W.O.L.

The return journey was long and slow and the group didn't arrive until the early evening. Mirrax immediately reported to Grast. After recounting the battle Mirrax enquired about the prince. The answer was most disturbing.

"The prince has not returned to the bunker. We had assumed that he had taken his group straight to the east gate. This is worrying." The reply had not come from Grast, but from the king who had overheard the question.

"Your Highness, allow me to take some men to look for them," Mirrax offered.

"Not tonight," countered Grast, "it is too late and the only men we have available are those you brought with you and they are exhausted from the battle."

"As much as it pains me, I have to agree with Grast," added the king, "first thing in the morning you will take these men as well as Alesia Baptiste and Orion Elek and find my son!"

Even though she saw the truth in their words Mirrax was not happy with their decision. She wanted to head out now, on her own if need be. She cursed Calhaan in her head for delaying her return to the bunker.

T-0 days and 1 hour

About an hour before dawn, Mirrax, Orion, Alesia and the rangers were ready to move out. The Ascalon soldiers that had returned with her the previous day were needed to guard the bunker. The last group of refugees from the catacombs under the abbey had reported the appearance of strange creatures both above and below ground that had never been seen in Ascalon before.

They carefully began their journey west, wary of these new creatures. At its deepest the river was now only up to their waists. Mirrax wondered if the monks could use a variation of the spell used on her quiver on the stockpiled water. As they crested the hill by the remains of the actor's stage they saw a few dirty and dishevelled Grawl being chased by a group of what could only be these 'new' creatures.

"Mirrax? Do you think you can hit one of these things so we can study it?"

"Sure thing Alesia!"

As silently as she could Mirrax followed the mob. One of them had fallen back as if sensing her pursuit, but before it could signal the others Mirrax let fly with an arrow. The creature fell with almost no sound. She then ordered two of the rangers to take it back to the bunker and straight to the first monk or necromancer they could find.

The rest of the group carried on. As they rounded the corner just past the west gate they came upon the remains of an Ascalon soldier. He had almost been picked clean by scavengers but there were obvious signs of broken bones. The group decided that it must have been stone elementals that had done this as they were the only local creatures with the physical capacity to break a mans spine. The soldiers crest and uniform placed him with those who had left with the prince.

Twenty minutes and a few stone elementals later, Mirrax was lying on her stomach overlooking the sight of a great battle. A warband of charr and two overseers stood guard over a cage with five prisoners inside. She could make out the distinctive large figure of Malios tending to a wounded man. The fact that the overseers had not restricted his magic meant that they wanted this wounded man alive. It had to be the prince; he would be a very valuable prisoner. She did wonder why they were being held here and not deep into charr territory.

Hearing a slight commotion behind her she turned to see Orion and Alesia standing between the rangers and a large Melandru's Stalker. 'Where the hell has he been?' Sliding down the incline she approached the cat.

"Well it's about time you showed up Whistler," she began, "alright listen up! There are twenty-two charr down there holding the prince and four others prisoner. Orion take three rangers and circle round to the other side. Your job is to get that cage open, melt the lock if you have to. Whistler and I will draw the charr up here so you can get close. The rest of you will wait down here and fire, on my command, over that hill and right on their fowl heads. We attack as the sun crests that hill so as to blind them. That gives you ten minutes to get into position. Move!"

This would be a very long ten minutes.

A.N. sorry but I finished the chewing gum and you can't have my laptop. Well it's my longest chapter yet and it only took me 9 months. Let's hope the next one is done quicker.


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